Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to handoffs between access points in wireless networks.
Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems such as Flash-OFDMA, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for further improvements in the underlying technology. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to various multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies.
For example, here is significant interest in systems and methods for offloading certain services delivered by cellular networks to Wi-Fi networks. However, certain issues are observable, including issues related to interruptions causes by handoffs between access points (APs). The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) have promulgated certain standards, such as IEEE 802.11r, that introduce mechanisms for “fast handoff” across managed APs. However, these and other standards assume that there is a trust relationship across the APs involved in handoffs (e.g., APs managed by the same operator where association and corresponding authentication may not be necessary), however the APs used for cellular offload may not be in the same trusted network. Accordingly, the standards-based approaches cannot be used.